DEFENDANT IN TROUSERS CASE WOULD ACCEPT LASHING TO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000905 DEPT FOR SE GRATION, S/USSES, AF A/S CARSON, AF/C, IIP/G/AF, RRU-AF, DRL/Crampton NSC FOR MGAVIN DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI UNSC SU SUBJECT: DEFENDANT IN TROUSERS CASE WOULD ACCEPT LASHING TO CHALLENGE SUDANESE LAW REF: A) KHARTOUM 870, B) KHARTOUM 888 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Sudanese security forces on August 4 fired tear gas to disperse protesters at the trial of Lubna Hussein, a journalist currently working as a Public Affairs Officer at the United Nations. Ms. Hussein was arrested in Khartoum on July 3 and charged with "indecent dress" along with other women for wearing trousers in public (Ref A). Authorities delayed the trial for another month. "I am looking to change the law," Hussein told Poloff on August 2, adding that she will persist in her case until she either overturns the statutes, or is lashed. Anecdotal evidence indicates that Sudan's Public Order Police (POP),tasked with enforcing Sudan's Public Order laws, are policing more aggressively due to a recent bureaucratic shakeup in the Government of Sudan (GOS). Experts believe that Sudan's convoluted Public Order laws must be addressed before Sudan's laws can meet international standards. The issue remains a sensitive one in the capital and few observers are optimistic that such "public order" questions will be resolved anytime soon. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) Meeting with Poloff on August 2, Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese woman journalist currently working as a Public Affairs Officer at the U.N., said she has resisted all attempts by both her lawyers and governmentprosecutors to dismiss the case, because she intends to use her arrest to draw attention to what she described as Sudan's antiquated Public Order laws and the Public Order Police (POP). ?I am not looking for innocence,? she said. ?I am looking to change the law.? After authorities moved the case last week from a Public Order Court to a conventional Sudanese civil court, Hussein chose to press on with her appeal despite knowing that she could suffer up to 40 lashes and a significant fine for wearing slacks in public. Many signs indicate Sudanese authorities are, in fact, eager to dismiss the case against her (Ref B),and Hussein believes that she was arrested not due to her work as an outspoken journalist, but because of overzealous policing by the POP. On August 3, she called publically for civil society activists and international media to attend her August 4 court date to continue to bring attention to her cause. ?I want to accept the lashes,? she said defiantly. ?I don't consider it my case, but the case of thousands of women who were beaten and will be beaten.? ¶3. (SBU) One of nine women arrested on July 3 outside a restaurant in Khartoum, Hussein reported that her fellow arrestees have already been lashed, including three girls under 18 years of age. Although the POP appeared eager to enforce the Public Order laws against immodest dress, officers in the Public Order Court were similarly eager to collect bribes from the girls in exchange for lenience. According to Hussein, one woman negotiated her freedom with the officers down from 600 Sudanese pounds (approximately 250 USD) to a final price of 250 Sudanese pounds (approximately 100 USD). Another gave the woman in charge of the lashing 100 Sudanese pounds and was whipped with less ferocity. Hussein described the woman who lashed the arrested women as a large, imposing Sudanese woman from the north, who uses a traditional Sudanese whip meant for horses and camels. -------------- Bureaucratic Changes Spur Enforcement -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Hussein believed that Sudan's Public Order Police have begun policing more aggressively due to recent changes in the GOS's internal policing bureaucracy. General Othman Hashim Mohamed, the hardline northern police general who established the POP in the 1990s to enforce the Nimeiri-era Public Order laws, was appointed Head of National Police four months ago. After serving for ten years as the Director of the Office of GOS President Omar Al-Bashir, Gen. Hashim now leads Sudan's myriad policing agencies, including the POP. In addition to women's dress and indecent behavior, both uniformed and undercover POP officers focus on confiscating drugs and alcohol, both illegal in the North. UNMIS Human Rights Office did not have specific figures related to arrests by the POP, but Hussein said that anecdotal reports indicated that the POP has arrested more women in the last several months for so-called ?indecent? clothing. -------------- -------------- NON COMPLIANCE WITH CONSTITUTION,INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS -------------- -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Sudan's Public Order laws give POP officers wide latitude in arresting citizens for any number of offensives, according to Mohamed Ibrahim, an Egyptian justice currently employed as head of KHARTOUM 00000905 002 OF 002 UNMIS's Rule of Law unit. The particular law in the code under which Hussein was arrested, ?Section 152, Shameful and Immoral Practice,? states: ?Public appearance in indecent dress or scandalous or indecent behavior that offends the public will lead to a penalty that includes not more than forty lashes or payment of a fine or even both.? Ironically, according to Ibrahim, the laws were so poorly designed that the sections of the code that attempt to interpret and implement Shari'a Law actually violate the fundamental tenets of the strict Islamic code. Sudan's Public Order laws are replete with sections that rule on immorality, interpersonal relations and even belly dancing. Discussion of them is a sensitive issue that Sudanese authorities are not eager to address. For this reason, the GOS cancelled its participation in a UNMIS Rule of Law forum on the laws in March. ?The laws are very vague, and they must be readdressed by the government to be in compliance with international standards and the Interim National Constitution,? Ibrahim said. ¶6. (SBU) Sara Mekki Hassan Abbo, a Sudanese legal scholar and UNHCR employee who has analyzed the Public Order laws, said the strong showing of Sudanese civil society in support of Hussein took the court by surprise, and may lead the court to dismiss the case under pressure. Abbo called the public laws ?embarrassing,? as they have been used in the past to ban women from selling tea and coffee on the street, and from working in cafeterias and gas stations. Abbo said GOS authorities may retreat from their support of the Public Order laws. The Governor of Khartoum State restricted active enforcement of the laws in 2000 amid mounting public criticism. ¶7. (SBU) However, other human rights advocates in Khartoum are not optimistic that Hussein's strong stance will force the Sudanese authorities to address inconsistencies in the law, or even restrict the latitude given to the POP. Noted Darfuri human rights advocate, Salih Mahmoud Osman, told Poloff on July 29 that by arresting Hussein, Sudanese authorities are "restricting the margins of freedom." He noted that Hussein is a charismatic writer and media personality with a wide readership and popular support among young people in Khartoum. ?The government's behavior is inconsistent with the stated rights in the Interim National Constitution,? Osman said, citing the 2005 document that attempted to establish basic freedoms throughout Sudan. A veteran who regularly appeals decisions in the Sudanese justice system, Osman believes that if Hussein is convicted, it will be nearly impossible for her defense lawyers to appeal the verdict for a more favorable outcome. ¶8. (SBU) Comment: Hussein's defiant stand challenges the 1980s-era governing structures set up to institutionalize Islamic extremism by using 21st century information technology and the burgeoning power of civil society actors on the national scene against them. While today's trial ended in tear gas and fleeing protestors, Hussein's stance has the potential to begin a much-needed national conversation on the legacy of its Nimeiri-era justice system and the wide latitude given to police and security forces in defining "indecent" behavior and dress. End Comment. WHITEHEAD